Does creating a differentiated small group schedule for your word study program give you a bit of a headache? (I never got a headache from it, but it sure can be time consuming!) Well, I’ve been working on something special for upper elementary teachers implementing Words Their Way! Over the summer, I dreamt of an idea that would help teachers get their word study schedule made with a few clicks. I thought surely what I wanted could be accomplished with a spreadsheet and some formulas…well VOILA! My FREE automatic scheduling spreadsheet for word study (specifically Words Their Way) will populate your word study rotations/center schedule for each of your word study groups.

To bring this automatic word study small group schedule to fruition, I reached out to Daniel Zaccaro of Helix Forms. I had come across his Words Their Way Assessment spreadsheets and thought he may be able to bring to life my idea! Daniel did not disappoint and I hope you are happy with the outcome!

Before learning about this scheduling tool, you should know a few things about my word study program:

• I use Words Their Way Word Sort books, but have innovated and created a lot of resources to fill in the gaps of what is missing from a program that only encourages word sorting and meeting with the teacher. You’ll see those activities listed in the scheduling tool.

• I recommend no more than 5 groups , but up to 6 group schedules can be created with the automatic spreadsheet.

• Students go through a cycle of activities. This schedule is not structured with a Monday through Friday routine (because I’ve found that that leads to dropping our routines when we have interruptions).

• Each group’s word study cycle of activities is staggered so that Meet with the Teacher and other activities that require sharing materials are not happening on the same day.

LET’S GET ON TO THIS AMAZING TOOL!

The word study custom schedule creator makes it easy to design a learning path for up to 6 word study groups. With just a few clicks, you'll have a magical, customized word study schedule at your fingertips! Whether you choose a 7, 8, or 9 day cycle of activities, you can design a schedule that incorporates a variety of differentiated, impactful activities to help your students excel at and enjoy word study. As you visualize this time of day, you'll be on your way to word study teaching joy in no time! With the Word Study Custom Schedule Creator, you can experience the transformation I did when I discovered the benefits of staggering each group's schedule and building it through a cycle rather than a Monday - Friday routine.

INTRODUCTION TO THE CUSTOM WORD STUDY SCHEDULE CREATOR

We are excited to bring you a word study scheduling tool that uncomplicates the process of creating a differentiated, staggered word study schedule. With just a few clicks, you'll have a magically customized word study schedule at your fingertips! Whether you choose a 7, 8, or 9 day cycle, you can design a routine that incorporates a variety of differentiated, impactful activities to help your students excel at learning to spell and understand words.

LIST OF GROUPS YOU’ll HAVE (GROUP SELECTOR)

Let’s learn how to use the tool, starting with the first tab. This is where you can choose which groups to include in your schedule, as well as how many times the teacher will meet with them.

Choose Groups: This top section is where you select the groups that you would like to include. Click the drop down arrows to select them. You must indicate whether each group will meet with the teacher once or twice. If you forget, an error message will pop up to remind you. The form starts with a default list of groups, but you can customize the names of each group in the table below.

Group Names: This table is where you can customize what each group is called. You can even include adding student names if needed. Any group names you specify here will show up in the “Group selection” drop down boxes.

SELECT your word study activities

The next tab is where you can choose which activities to include in your schedule. The amount of activities you choose will depend on whether you’re planning for a 7, 8, or 9-day schedule. Except for the first and last activities (which are required), you do not need to select a minimum number of these. Any chosen activities will cycle themselves in order to fill your schedule.  For example, if I choose ONLY Custom 1 and Custom 2, the schedule will look like this (see video).

Here we see that after a “New word list”, the Custom 1 and Custom 2 activities cycle until the last day. For simplicity, the last activity (Whole Group Day) will always be shown on the final day of the schedules, but it can really fall on any day you prefer. 

Notice how there are two columns of checkboxes. This is so you can differentiate activities between the “Meet Once” groups and and the “Meet Twice” groups.  This is here because the “Meet Twice” groups likely need more support than their peers, which could translate into modified or differentiated activities.

DESCRIPTION OF MY WORD STUDY ACTIVITIES

Discovery Word Search: Students search through a word search that does not contain a word list. These word searches encourage students to “discover” or identify a common pattern being used among the words in the word search. When students discover the focus pattern(s) or concepts, they look for more words with those patterns and attune their minds to think about other words that could fit. As students find new words, they must write them down in a sorted manner, categorizing words by patterns or sounds. Students benefit from a second day to complete their word study word searches. For tips on helping students learn strategies for finding words, visit this blog post or see the tips in the Word Search resources.

Meet with the Teacher: Use this time to go over word searches, discuss word patterns and generalized rules, introduce games students will be playing on following days, introduce word study notebook assignments, or other small group word study lessons.

Games/Activities (2 Days): Students play partner and independent games and activities like board games, match and memory, picture and word boards with spinners to reinforce the concepts they are learning and increase the fun and engagement during word study. During game play, students have a recording sheet that not only holds them accountable for playing the games with purpose, but allows me to assess their understanding and check in where needed!

Meet with Teacher (2nd Day) For groups that would benefit from a second small group meeting. Use this time to review skills, practice spelling, go over recording sheets from word study games, sort and build words, play a game, or other small group word study lessons.

Word Study Notebooks: a way to encourage students to think deeply about the words on their word lists. In the word study notebook activities, students are asked questions like: What do you notice about the way these words are spelled? What do you notice about the sounds in these words? What do you notice about the way the beginning/ending changed the meaning of the word? How did the spelling change when (something) was added? How did the spelling change when the tense changed? etc. My word study notebook activities give students more structure as they delve into building a deeper understanding of the words and spelling patterns on their word list.

CHOOSING THE ORDER OF ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR WORD STUDY CYCLE

RECOMMENDED -   By default, the activities are listed in their recommended order. This is the order that they will cycle through on the schedules. The recommended order is shown here for your reference.

My recommended order is as follows:

• Discovery Word Study Word Searches

• Meet with the Teacher

• Games and Activities (hands-on)

• Meet with the Teacher (for lowest 1-2 groups)

• Word Study Notebooks

• Catch Up Day

• Assessment Day

CUSTOM - If you do find that you have a different preference for the order of your word study activities, you can choose to customize the sequence of activities that students move through. To do this, use the “Custom Order” section.  Here, we can use the drop down boxes to choose the activities one-by-one in whatever order we’d like. Ignore the “input must fall within specified range” errors. These are a result of the feature that excludes activities from the drop down box if they have already been chosen.   Remember to choose the order for both “Meet Once” and “Meet Twice” groups!  This “Custom Order” section is optional, and is only there in case you want to try a different order for your activities.

3 SCHEDULE OPTIONS - 7 DAY, 8 DAY, 9 DAY

There are 3 options for schedules: 7-day, 8-day, and 9-day. The only difference between these tabs is how long the activity cycle lasts. Let’s look at the 7-day schedule for our example. 

• The top box is where you choose whether you are using the “Recommended Order” or a “Custom Order”. Most of the time this will remain at “Recommended Order”. After this, there are two options for creating your schedule, each with their own pro’s and con’s.

ONE-CLICK SCHEDULER

PROS: More customization options, More magical to use.

• The CONS for this SCHEDULING OPTION: You’ll need to click the “Create Schedule” button each time you want to update the schedule.  It requires authorizing a Google Script, which some people might not feel comfortable doing.

• The big advantage of the top schedule is that it lets you make additional changes after a schedule is created. After clicking the “Create Schedule” button to populate the schedule, you can drag and drop, or copy and paste cells to make additional changes to the calendar.   (For example, maybe you want to give one group a break during the week, or for a different group to double up on an activity.)  

• NOTE: The first time you use this “Create Schedule” feature, you must authorize Google Sheets to allow the script to run. The full script can be seen here. (All this script does is link the “Create Schedule” button to pasting the schedule of selected activities.

AUTOMATIC SCHEDULER - CANNOT CUSTOMIZE

• PROS: Automatically updates after any changes on the “Group & Activity Chooser” tab.  Does not require Google Scripts.

• CONS: No additional customization options. The schedule automatically filters in, so you cannot drag and drop or copy and paste cells.

about the activities-activity details

Finally, this tab includes a description of what each default activity looks like. And that’s all you need to create custom schedules for Word Study!

Would you like to customize your own word study schedule using the automatic scheduling creation tool? I’ve created a Google spreadsheet tool that you can use to build your own word study schedule .

If you’re more of a “paper-pencil” type and want a printable schedule template, you can click here or the button below to grab your own copy of my suggested word study routine. The link will prompt you to make a copy for yourself.

Wish you could have a copy of my schedule? You can grab my word study schedule template from google docs! Make sure you go to FILE and SAVE A COPY to save an EDITABLE version into your own google docs!  

WHAT WORD STUDY RESOURCES DO I USE AND RECOMMEND?

Note: Links to the Words Their Way books are affiliate links. This means that I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Read my full disclosure here.

I started using the Words Their Way Word Sort books for word study a few years into my teaching journey and I never looked back. While the differentiated word lists alleviated a lot of my planning woes (I know longer had to research and build my own word lists for students!), I also found that my students needed more than word sorting for a well-rounded word study program to make an impact on their spelling and word reading abilities. Hence, many of my activities were born (discovery word searches, word study notebooks, and word study games/activities).

Don't miss other posts in this word study series: 

⇒ Additional Tips and Suggestions for Word Study

⇒ Differentiating Your Word Study Routine

⇒ A 7 Day Overview of My Words Their Way Word Study Routine

⇒ Tips for Success with Word Study Word Searches

HELPFUL RESOURCES FOR UPPER ELEMENTARY WORD STUDY